According to the World Food Programme, the world produces enough food to feed twice the current population of 7 billion people. Globally, however, one in eight people continue to battle a war against the state of hunger every day. Hunger still persists daily in approximately 821 million people while over 950 million people continue to fall victim to the torment of chronic malnutrition, a result of food insecurity.
This signifies a case of food insecurity, a situation which exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for good health status.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a historic document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, states a list of rights which belong to every single person. Article 25 reads “Food and Shelter for All”, ‘guaranteeing’ that all individuals have the right to food, freedom from hunger and access to food that is safe and nutritious. This right therefore infers that hunger is not inevitable. However, state interventions, although improving, remain incredibly slow, particularly in developing countries and resource limited communities (e.g. rural parts of Africa).
The question therefore arises whether food insecurity exists as a result of a flawed human rights system or discrimination.
Food insecurity continues to pose a serious global challenge which reflects governments’ shortcomings in meeting human rights obligations in ensuring that all people (everywhere in the world) have the highest attainable nutrients to last their lifespan. If the world is rich in food, then hunger is a fundamental violation of human rights and food insecurity is the result of a flawed human rights system.
This is because the actual lack of availability of food and its access for many, removes individual responsibility to food acquisition and rather highlights an issue with societal structures. Interventions are failing to first of all systematically clarify the imbalances in society that trigger food crisis before creating retrospective policies to ensure that the right to food is exercised by all.
When Governments are struggling to protect their populations from hunger, it is up to others to use international human rights laws to serve as a guide in helping them respond effectively to hunger.
Non-discrimination is the most fundamental principle of the Human Rights Act, with many accounts stating that everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms regardless of race, sex, language, religion, age, political opinion, national/social origin, property ownership and birth status. However, a simple glance at nutrition data cross-culturally, reveals a high level of discrimination.
The fact that women and infants, for example, are the only two groups that are classed as vulnerable when it comes to nutritional illnesses should cause extreme concern. Governments have successfully identified reasons why the health of these two groups are compromised, however, the progress with systematic implementation has been lacking. Although barriers in ensuring that women and children’s health are equal to that of men exist (e.g. due to patriarchal structures in certain countries), further efforts must persist to ensure that non-discrimination applies at all times everywhere in the world.
Such nutritional data sheds a light on discrimination and therefore state intervention is necessary in the name of human rights to ensure that all children’s need are being met (e.g. by ensuring parents are educated and women are supported in breastfeeding duties).
Food insecurity continues to affect many people in the world, despite the fact that enough food is produced to feed twice the current population. It may be as a result of a flawed human rights structure, discrimination or a synergy between both which continue to peak through several nutritional publications.
Regardless, all parts of society have a duty to work together to protect these rights in order to not only achieve zero hunger worldwide, but to ensure that food insecurity is eradicated.
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Paula Oyella is studying Nutrition at the University of Nottingham. Her writing focuses on issues around the world’s food problems and how it affects the livelihoods of people in developing countries.
Great article. Persuasive and full of knowledge.